1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus capable of conveying a sheet from a storage unit, a control method for the printing apparatus, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there is a printing apparatus which has a function of specifying a certain storage unit (a sheet cassette or a sheet deck) to be used for printing. More specifically, when a job specifying a certain storage unit is received, such printing apparatus sets the specified storage unit as a storage unit to be used for the job, conveys a sheet from the storage unit, and prints an image on the conveyed sheet. With this function, for example, after accommodating sheets to be used for printing in a storage unit, a user can directly specify the storage unit and execute printing. However, if the printing apparatus detects running out of sheets in the specified storage unit, even if other storage units store usable sheets, the printing apparatus stops printing.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-256076 discusses a grouping function of registering two or more storage units as a group. When the printing apparatus discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-256076 detects running out of sheets in a storage unit used as the current sheet feed source during printing, the printing apparatus continues printing by changing the sheet feed source to another storage unit within the same group as the storage unit. In this way, the printing apparatus can continue printing even when the printing apparatus detects running out of sheets in a single storage unit.
However, according to the technique discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-256076, when the printing apparatus detects running out of sheets, the printing apparatus switches storage units within a group, irrespective of the type of the job being executed. Thus, when running out of sheets is detected, the printing apparatus cannot determine whether to switch storage units within a group based on the job type.
For example, depending on the usage environment of the printing apparatus, different operations may be executed. More specifically, a user may wish to switch storage units within a group when executing a print job transmitted from an external personal computer (PC), while the user may not wish to switch storage units when executing a copy job.
When a print job is executed, many pages are often printed. Thus, in such a case, if storage units are switched, printing can be executed more efficiently. In contrast, when a copy job is executed, a user may bring certain sheets to the printing apparatus, set the sheets in a storage unit, and input an instruction to print by specifying the storage unit. Thus, sheets in the storage unit are used. However, if the sheets in the storage unit run out and sheets in another storage unit are used, the type of the sheets used to the print product sheets is also changed in the middle of the job.
In such a case, whether to switch storage units in a group cannot be determined depending on the job type.